Fusion 360 Personal the best option for a newbie?

[davidpbest]

This is what I was trying to do, or that I want to do. Even the etched markings on cross slide drawing are something I don't know how to do. I can make a scale in a straight line on a flat surface like a ruler. But I have yet to figure out how draw one on a dial like the one in your screen shot or for that matter in a curve like on your cross slide drawing.

I made a video which is still being processed by YouTube. I'll post again once it's published.

 

[davidpbest]

OK, here's the video:

 

[Just for fun]

Thanks David, That's great info! I really appreciate it.

Tim

 

[Just for fun]

You're a Rock Star David !!! Thank You very much!

 

[davidpbest]

Here's another video with a different technique that will clue you into how I would recommend adding the text to the ring - either in conjunction with the index tick marks or separate from it. This uses the Emboss feature in Fusion which is the easiest way of adding text to a random curved surface (it works for any type of curved surface not just cylinders). Enjoy.

 

[Just for fun]

Thanks David, I'll have to play with that tomorrow.

 

[AlfromNH]

Awesome stuff, @davidpbest

 

[slodat]

Looks like a low price to get started in a coordinated way. Would save countless hours finding free things.

The trainer in those courses is great! He offers consulting services through his website. Having him in my corner has had a profound impact on my business. When I get stuck with something, I can usually book time with him within 24 hours, often same day. It has been a great way to learn as I progress.

 

[Flynth]

Guys let me say this as no one else did (I think). There is a very good CAD package made by Siemens. It is free for hobbyists and non-commercial use. It is called Siemens Solid Edge Community Edition. You can get it here:
https://solidedge.siemens.com/en/solutions/users/hobbyists-and-makers/ It is fully featured piece of CAD software and I frequently prefer it to anything else. Siemens is a big company and they invested in producing lots of educational material (videos etc) as well as there is lots of community generated content to get you started. If you know any other CAD you'll pick it up very quickly.

And in contrast to Fusion 360 it is truly free forever. Once you download it and install it on your PC the company cannot "switch it off remotely" etc. It's yours. None of that "cloud" bs.(please let's not start a discussion on what is and isn't cloud software, I'm a software developer by trade - for the purpose of this discussion if it needs an Internet connection to work it is "cloud" software). That means you do have to backup your files of course, if your computer breaks and you haven't got a copy of your files they may be gone. Your computer has to have fairly powerfull graphics, enough memory etc. Unfortunately, they don't have old versions of this software available for free for older computers.

Also Solid Edge is quite unique in a way you can work in it without having to build a so called tree of features like in Fusion 360 or Solidworks. Where you start with some base feature, then you add on stuff on top. Towards the end you find you need to change the base feature and all subsequent stuff breaks so you have to manually repair it all...(unless you have enough experience using the software and knowing its quirks you build your tree of features in its "special" way thinking how to prevent that breakage, and how you may wish to tweak that design in future).

Solid Edge has what they call synchronous mode. You can use traditional mode, or you can use synchronous mode which let's you edit everything without breaking anything, or you can mix and match. It's very powerful. There are few annoyances if you're used to another program(they use mouse a lot more than keyboard), but nothing major. Oh, BTW it also opens Solidworks files natively, and imports a lot of cad formats including STL and Step. (editing STLs and other mesh formats is best than any other software I saw).

I also recommend it for new users. If you're a new user it's even better as you'll not have unlearn habits from other software

The negative bit? If you want to use it commercially it is horribly expensive. Like 3 times Solid Works price. Also you don't get CAM (cnc programming) in the same software, but neither you do in Solidworks - you need Mastercam for it, you do in Fusion 360 - but it is pretty basic. So what do I use for Cam? Freecad. Yes, that's right. Freecad has an OK cam functionality, but my cam requirements are pretty simple. I just have a small 3 axis router. However, SoludEdge can export in any CAD format under the sun and there are lots of standalone CAM packages that one can use with it

So how did I end up using this software? If you're interested let me tell you my CAD, CAM and 3D printing story.

My CAD interest was sparked by 3d printing. I too was a free fusion 360 user and I was very unhappy when they neutered the free edition.

Also I'll always prefer running software on my own computer to so called "cloud" software. The whole Internet and even the electric grid can disappear tomorrow and as long as I have fuel for my generator I'll still have my computer and my files.

So, I said, no more cloud CAD and I spent quite a while learning FreeCAD. It is very powerful software, but unless you design pretty simple shapes or you have patience of a saint it will drive you insane. The "tree of features" issue I mentioned before that is present in Fusion 360 and Solidworks that often breaks your model when you attempt to change some base features is much, much worse in FreeCAD. After a year of experience with it I learned all the little "tricks" how to prevent this breakage etc. Then I worked for a long time on a rather complex model and after analysing how much time and energy I'm wasting on this software idiosyncrasies rather than thinking about my design I decided to switch... I'll still pull FreeCAD for simple stuff, for FEM Analysis, for CAM, but I refuse to design in it complex stuff from scratch. Stuff like making a part, cutting it into 3 pieces, continuing to modify each of those pieces, then coming back and modifying the original part hoping those 3 parts update is so counter intuitive to achieve and requires constant foresight during the design process I just gave up on it for complex stuff.

Otherwise, it is an excellent piece of software. If all you do is simple forms, and you're a very patient person, give it a try. You might like it (until you encounter issues).

Then I decided to learn Solidworks. I was affiliated with a university at a time so I could get a cheap educational license. It had a reputation of "most popular CAD" so I thought it must be the best.

Solidworks is a good package. It is very powerful, if you learn its quirks it allows you do to really complex stuff and the learning curve isn't as steep as FreeCAD. There are lots of online materials. It still suffers from the "tree of features" model, but when it breaks it does so fairly gracefully allowing you to fix stuff fairly easily. For converting let's say a paper drawing, or a physical part into CAD it is great. But, for once, it is expensive (unless you want to engage in piracy, but they as a company have a history of going after individuals who do that by extracting their personal info from their PCs etc, so in addition to being immoral you have to be careful not to have open Internet access, not to send your dodgy files to any licensed user and so on). Again, being a software developer, I have a strong dislike for piracy. They do various offers and discounts from time to time that makes it a bit more affordable, but back then when I was deciding whether to buy it the writing was on the wall they'll be moving to "Internet connection always required" licensing model. So I didn't want to shell out lots of money for software I wouldn't own anyway.

Eventually I read about Solid Edge. I thought, no way, there must be a catch... But there isn't as far as I can tell. And today for the kind of design where you don't necessarily know how thd end product will look like exactly SolidEdge has no equal to me. I think Siemens is doing it for good PR. Kudos to them for it.

 

[AlfromNH]

Very interesting @Flynth. I don’t recall Solid Edge coming up in my searches for free/hobbyist CAD software. I couldn’t get the system requirements page to load, is there a Mac version avail or PC only?